Bruxism or Clenching: Types, Symptoms, Causes, Effects

Numerous people grind or clench their teeth from time to time. This condition leads to jaw pain and tooth problems. This problem may even occur during sleep. Medically, the occasional teeth grinding is known as bruxism. This practice on a regular basis damages teeth and leads to other oral complications. This practice might require people to use mouth guards for grinding teeth bruxism or clenching.

What is Bruxism?

The medical term for grinding teeth and clenching the jaw is bruxism. This condition may happen unintentionally while you’re awake or asleep. Bruxism involves dynamic grinding of the teeth, whereas clenching involves static contact of teeth together with power from the closing jaw muscles. These actions are parafunctional and can harm the chewing apparatus.  Regular teeth grinding hurts the jaw muscles, teeth, and Temporomandibular joints (TMJs). These joints connect the jawbone to the skull and let the mouth open and close. A teeth-grinding guard might help take care of this situation.

Types of Bruxism

While the grinding action remains the same, bruxism can happen whether you’re asleep or awake. Therefore, the two categories it gets divided into are as follows:

Awake Bruxism

This condition leads to clenching and grinding your teeth while awake. Usually, this condition appears due to emotional issues. Anxiousness, stress, angry emotions, and even concentration, when overcome a person can lead to grinding teeth. Usually, you might not need treatment for awake bruxism if you notice and stop it. Managing stress and inducing awareness can help reduce the frequency of this issue. A bruxism guard can also prevent this issue during the day.

Sleep Bruxism

Grinding teeth while sleeping causes more harm than good. Because of the unawareness, while you do so, it becomes difficult to diagnose and get treatment. Moreover, people don’t realise how strongly they clench their teeth and jaw while sleeping. Jaw pain and teeth problems might arise when they use force up to 250 pounds. It can also lead to headaches. A night guard for teeth grinding can help you fix this issue.

Signs and Symptoms

The recognition signs and symptoms that you may see when affected by bruxism are as follows:

• Loud teeth grinding

You may grind or clench your teeth and jaw so loud that even your partner wakes up.

• Harm to teeth

Your teeth may get flattened, chipped, loose, or even fractured.

• Worn tooth enamel

Tooth enamel is an essential covering over your teeth, without which the deep layers of your teeth get exposed.

• Sensitivity

You may experience an increase in tooth pain and sensitivity.

• Harm to jaw muscles

You might notice a tightening in the jaw muscles. They might get tired or lead to a locked jaw that doesn’t open or close completely. This situation demands a custom mouthguard to fix the issue.

• Soreness

There may be soreness and pain in the jaw, neck, or face.

• Earache

A pain might feel like an earache, but it might not be a problem with your ear.

• Headache

There may be a dull headache that begins at the temples.

• Chewing damage

When you chew, the inside of the cheek might get damaged.

• Disrupted sleep

You might experience sleep disruption due to mouth clenching or grinding issues. A mouthguard to stop grinding teeth can prevent this problem.

Causes of Bruxism

You may not find any single identifiable cause of bruxism. Several factors affect it depending on the type of bruxism. Let’s look into it in detail:

1. Primary bruxism

It is something that occurs on its own without being a consequence of any other condition. The known factors contributing to this condition include:

• Growing teeth

Young children who are growing teeth might experience this problem. It doesn’t have a lasting effect and goes away on its own.

• Stress:

Both awake and sleep bruxism happens due to stress.

• Mouth irritation:

If you have irritation in your mouth, missing teeth, or a misaligned bite, this issue may arise. You may need a retainer for teeth grinding.

• Smoking, drinking, caffeine:

Substance abuse and excessive coffee intake may lead to mouth clenching.

2. Secondary bruxism

Another medical condition or circumstance may lead you to secondary bruxism. The factors include:

• Medications:

Many drugs like antidepressants and antipsychotics may lead you to face bruxism.

• Neurological problems:

Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases may cause movement during sleep, which lead to clenching.

• Mental health issues:

Anxiety, stress, and depression may influence bruxism to appear.

• Sleep apnea:

This is a problem that disturbs sleep because of breathing to stop temporarily. When the sleep quality declines, teeth clenching gets promoted. You may need a dentist at sunshine coast to help you get out of this problem.

Long-term effects and complications

Bruxism can have severe long-term effects that may cause serious damage to the patients. These harmful consequences include:

• Tooth Sensitivity

People suffering from bruxism from a long term can lead to tooth sensitivity as the enamel covering the tooth wears off.

• Gum bleeding

People may experience inflammation in the gum. There can be bleeding as well.

• Losing teeth

Clenching with full force may even lead to teeth getting loose and ultimately falling out.

• Damaged dental work

If the patient has undergone dental works like crowns and fillings before, they may experience damage to these treatments. It may ultimately lead to poor oral hygiene. So, having a mouthguard for jaw clenching is critical.

• Teeth flattening

Excessive mouth clenching can even flatten or shorten teeth.

• Fractures

Although uncommon, jaw clenching and grinding may lead to teeth fractures among the people.

• TMJ syndrome

Temporomandibular joints that enable opening and closing of the jaws may experience pain, tension, and challenges in chewing.

Factors increasing the Bruxism risk for you

You may be at a higher risk of suffering from bruxism due to the following factors:

• Stress

As mentioned above, having stress or anxiety may aggravate bruxism or clenching condition in you. Similarly, anger and frustration can also lead to this issue.

• Family history

If your family has a history of sleep bruxism, or other members have been having this issue, you may be at risk of this problem.

• Personality type

If you’re an aggressive, competitive, or hyperactive personality bearer, you may have a higher bruxism risk.

• Age

Younger children are more at risk of bruxism than others.

• Medications

Psychiatric medications usually have bruxism as a side effect, leading to secondary bruxism.

• Substance abuse

Drinking alcohol, smoking, and even drinking caffeine can lead to mouth clenching and grinding. Recreational drugs are also contributory to this issue.

• Other disorders

Several other mental health and medical disorders may lead to mouth grinding. These include Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, night terrors, sleep apnea, etc.

Teeth grinding in children

Children are at a much higher risk for bruxism than adults because of their growing teeth. Parents can usually hear their child grinding teeth at night or during the day. However, this problem might not remain for long in children. This is because they usually outgrow bruxism when they lose their baby teeth. Their jaws and teeth change quickly, leading them out of this issue. However, some children may continue having this issue in teenage years as well. No matter what their age is, they may face the following consequences:

• Pain in their jaws
• TMJ syndrome and other disorders like jaw clicking
• Teeth enamel wear and tear
• Headaches

Since adults usually have bruxism due to stress, kids may have other factors causing this issue:

• Teeth that are not aligned may result in clenching
• Irritation in mouth
• Hereditary due to family history
• Allergies
• Obstructive sleep apnea

When mouth grinding occurs in children, talking to a healthcare provider is critical. Look for the worn out teeth and grinding sounds as symptoms in your kid. You may receive a night guard or a mouth splint for grinding teeth. These options can work until the kid outgrows bruxism. Or, if the root cause is stress, they can turn over to stress relief options.

Bruxism Diagnosis

A dental examination may lead to the detection and diagnosis of bruxism. The things that dentists may look out for are as follows:

• The tooth enamel to be worn out
• Chipped, fractured, flattened, or even loose teeth
• Crowns and fillings gotten earlier might be damaged
• Jaw muscles might be enlarged

Usually, the wear and tear of teeth may also happen due to factors like vigorous brushing, abrasive toothpaste elements, hard foods, acidic soft drinks, etc. Consulting a professional will help as they know the differences in patterns in each case.

Bruxism treatment

The numerous treatments and strategies to help with bruxism are as follows:

• Mouthguard or splint

Using a bruxism splint or a mouthguard for clenching can protect teeth from damage. Instead of using a regular mouthguard it is better to opt for a custom made one. This way the mouthguard is made just for your mouth and will protect your teeth well.

• Medicines

The doctor may suggest medicines to relieve the pain and swelling due to clenching. And grinding. It may also include muscle relaxors to stop the grinding and clenching action.

• Underlying conditions treatment

If it’s secondary bruxism, treating the underlying conditions like stress, anxiety, etc.,  may help with the issue.

Bottom line

Bruxism is an involuntary teeth grinding and clenching action that may cause significant troubles in the long term. A dental splint or a teeth grinding guard are tools to help with this issue. However, recommendations from the doctor should be your priority always.